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At least 20 people were wounded Friday night when a suicide bomber barried out an attack on the promenade in Tel Aviv.
Police and paramedics have arrived at the scene and are evacuating victims to nearby hospitals.
The blast apparently occurred around 11:30 PM on a Friday night at the “Stage” club on the corner of Herbert Samuel and Yonah Hanavi streets in the city, a time when people are often arriving at parties and night clubs in the area.
Police were closing roads Friday night, and have asked the public to avoid arriving at the area.
Security officials are persuing two suspects, after witnesses reported they saw two men fleeing the scene of the explosion.
According to the police, the terrorists may have come from the northern West Bank, and may intend to return to the area.
The area surrounding the site of the explosion was completely devastated in the blast. Journalists at the scene of the attack described broken street signs and shattered glass. One said that the next-door koisk was almost completely destroyed.
The manager of the club told Channel 2 that the club had opened only moments before the blast, in a queue of some 30 people waiting to enter.
There were four security guards on the door, he said, adding that the club was usually very busy on Friday nights.
He said that he had been inside at the time of the explosion, and had heard a “large boom.”
The explosion marks the end to a period of relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared an end to hostilities between the two sides, after more than four years of violence.
